February 23, 2009

I love brain training and tests. The Web is a great place to find some interesting and challenging tasks.

Try this Flash Fabrica offering. There are a few other puzzles you can try on this site -- some good, some very weird. Unfortunately, there seems to be no explanation of how they determine your 'brain age'.

February 16, 2009

I asked Walt's creator, Mike Rivamonte, to tell me about his design process. I'm always interested to know if visual artists use any of the same strategies we writers use, and just how they work.

Here's what Mike had to say:

"Usually I find an object or objects that inspires me. For Walt I found his head first. Incidentally his head is a 1923 Crosley Pup crystal radio. I bought the radio and right away began to sketch.

"I then wrote my thoughts of his biography. He is from the 1920s, He is not mischievous but more of a thinker. Every time he gets an idea the tube on his head lights up. I decided his body parts would come from that same era too.

"The more I wrote and sketched the more he comes alive. That helps me determine what he looks like and how he carries himself. As a drawing exercise, I draw thumbnails of the robot expressing emotions and moving around. By understanding how he would behave and react to a given situation I can focus on how to best set up the sculpture."I find parts from all over the U.S. and with the help of the internet I find things abroad too. Many of them are very rare and delicate. Some have initials carved or dedications engraved from previous owners which is always a treat to discover.

"Hours are spent figuring out how to best connect the pieces together. I’ll sketch it all out and if necessary build a working model. It is paramount that the viewer does not see any screws or bolts. I want the work to look as if it came together on its own. Sometimes you only get one chance to drill a hole or cut a piece. “Measure twice..”

"I love sketching my characters. Like any illustrator I want to capture the ultimate pose --the moment that best expresses the story. Sketching allows you to move things around and exaggerate posture and expression. It is also the springboard for new ideas and possibilities. There are some situations that are not feasible to construct but make a great illustration.

"The sketch becomes the blue print or guide to build the work. However physical limitations exists that you do not know are going to happen from the sketch. For example a sketch does not have a concept of gravity or the true physical weight of the objects you want to assemble. That is where center of gravity and counter balance come in. On Walt I found out that his legs, which are vintage goose neck lamps, were two different length. Wrestling with that issue the piece stood in a pose that I found quite amusing and ultimately became the final pose.

"The best part is that after a sculpture is complete and takes on a life of its own I can pack up all my new skills and experiences and head off to the next one!"

You can find Mike and his guys at his website. Click here for the gallery.

February 13, 2009

Sex, as they harshly call it,I fell into this morningat ten o'clock , a drizzling hourof traffic and wet newspapers.I thought of him who yesterdayclearly didn'tturn me to a hot fieldready for plowing,and longing for that young manpierced me to the rootsbathing every vein, etc.All day he appears to metouchingly desirable,a prize one could wreck one's peace for:I'd call it love if lovedidn't take so many yearsBut lust too is a jewela sweet flower and whatpure happiness to knowall our high-toned questionsbreed in a lively animal.

-- Adrienne Rich from Two Songs

You can find the second song by clicking here: The lovely rain-day traffic painting was created by Eileen O'Brien. You can find her work here at redbubble.com. This is a new discovery. I'll get back to you when I find out more.

February 5, 2009

True love begins with algebra
Those casual actors x and y,
Nonentities whose magic role
Is to turn nothing into all.
To be and not to be: to mate:
The links are chance, the chain is fate.

Michael Hamburger
from The Mathematics of Love

Her light shining in the darkness made everything tremble
The hills began dancing like rams.
"Oh Lord," I thought, "Our secrets will be discovered,"
But she reached back at once with her powerful hands
And covered us both with her long black hair,
And once again it was night.

Judah al-Haziri
(13th century Hebrew poet)

As the light comes through
And the night is turning into day
I want to know I'll die before you
I want to know I'll die before
We aren't lovers anymore

February 3, 2009

Have you heard of the 10,000 hour rule? I hadn't until I read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers: The Story of Success. It's an interesting read, along with his other books, Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Difference and Blink: Thinking Without Thinking. Gladwell, who pretty much looks like this guy with the ladder, is a staff writer for the New York Times. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in 2005. He has his detractors, but he also has his fans. His books get you thinking.The premise of Outliers is that we may be mistaken about natural talents and how people become successful. In one notable chapter, Gladwell cites research done over the course of the last twenty-five years by K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at Florida State University. That's him with the beard.

Haven't you always admired the natural athlete or writer or artist? Well, get over it right now! You, too, can be the natural talent you always wanted to be. If you're going to admire anything about the naturally talented person, admire the amount of work that person has put into it.

Except for a few athletes, Ericsson has shown that this kind of 'gift' that really successful people have comes only after a specific number of hours of dedicated practice. How many hours? 10,000.

Some would argue that you could practice something for 10,000 hours and still not get any better -- I know some golfers -- and writers -- who are prime examples of this. But Ericsson has shown that not all practice is equal. Practice is quite different from dedicated practice.

Practicing just for the sake of practicing will keep you busy, but it may not get you as far as you could be going. As a teacher who's put in well over 10,000 hours (um, quadruple that, perhaps? octuple?), I have seen this at work in my own life. I haven't been content to just teach a lesson and be satisfied with it. I have to design and classroom test each of them -- I think about each one and tinker with each as I go. I may teach some of the same lessons every year, but they certainly never look the same from one presentation to the next. That means a lot of time thinking (let's call it practicing). This is one example of how I've pursued dedicated practice. Find 10,000 hours of it yourself, and boom -- you're a success!

I could say more on this topic, but Geoffrey Colvin, Senior Editor-at-Large at Fortune Magazine has written a really great article on this subject here. You should take a look at it.

I plan to focus myself on dedicated practice with my writing -- I hope to find ways to produce more, stretch myself into different genres, to say things in interesting, quirky, and unusual new ways, to read more widely, and to think more critically -- and creatively -- about my own work and the work of others I admire. I'll be having fun over the next 7,000 hours upping my skills ante.

So, what is your particular talent? Are you willing to put in those 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to be a natural?